Introduction
In this article I explain how to get text area data in your PHP application. If we talk about the text area, then we can simply say that a text area in a web page is essentially a multiple text box that premises the user to enter a large amount of data. A text box allows getting the data from a text area, you use the "value" property of a text area object. Using XHTML code, I created a text area that has a name and id of the comment.
Property of a Text area object
The property of a text area is:
| Property |
Description |
| value |
It specifies the text in the textarea. |
XHTML code for a text area and a Paragraph
The XHTML code given below creates a text area that has a name and id comment and it has the area of 50 columns and 5 lines tall.
<p><b>Please Enter Your comment in the TextBox below:<b></p>
<p><textarea name="comment" id="Textarea1" rows="5" cols="50"></textarea></p>
It seems like:
![get-textarea-data1-in-php.jpg]()
JavaScript code to get the text area data
var $ = function (id) {
return document.getElementById(id);
}
var comment = $("comment").value;
var charcount = comment.length;
if (comment == " ") {
alett("Please Enter some thing");
}
else {
alert("Your Comment is " + charcount + " characters:\n\n" + comment);
}
When the JavaScript code runs it copies the contents of the text area into a variable named comment. Then it uses the length property of a string object to store the
number of characters in the text area in a variable named "charcount". In the JavaScript code above the if statement checks the text area for a blank then displays
the message "Please Enter some thing" otherwise display a message that shows the number of characters in the comment and the comment itself.
The button element given below creates a button that calls the JavaScript function to get comment data and the characters using the JavaScript code above.
<button onclick="myFunction()">Get TextBox Data</button>
Now, I provide the full script.
Example
An example that gets the data from a text area, when the user types some data into the text area, and after clicking the button, the text area data and characters will display in an alert box.
<html>
<head>
<script>
function myFunction() {
var $ = function (id) {
return document.getElementById(id);
}
var comment = $("comment").value;
var charcount = comment.length;
if (comment == "") {
alert("Please Enter some thing");
}
else {
alert("Your Comment is " + charcount + " characters:\n\n" + comment);
}
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<?php
?>
<p><b>Please Enter Your comment in the TextBox below:<b></p>
<p><textarea name="comment" id="Textarea1" rows="5" cols="50"></textarea></p>
<button onclick="myFunction()">Get TextBox Data</button>
</body>
</html>
Output
When this code runs, the output looks like:
![get-textarea-data2-in-php.jpg]()
After entering something into the text area the output looks like:
![get-textarea-data3-in-php.jpg]()
Fiinally, after the "Get TextBox Data" button is clicked:
![get-textarea-data4-in-php.jpg]()